1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print system adapted to be able to perform a processing concerning a job to be processed by a print apparatus, a job processing method, a storage medium, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, office-equipment makers and the like are examining new entry into new POD (print-on-demand) market (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-165722). While watching future trends in the market, print apparatus and print systems are closely examined for use in the POD environment assuming use cases and needs different from those in the office environment. In a printing environment such as the POD market, it will be important how to increase productivity in the print system. It will also be important how to facilitate the use of the print system by the operator of the print system while maintaining high productivity.
As described above, in order to enter the POD market, office-equipment makers and the like desirably assume the circumstance of the POD market and cope with any situation which hardly occurs in the office environment. For example, it is necessary to fully study digital print systems suited even to the POD environment toward practical use of products in consideration of points which may be important in the future in the POD environment. To make the print system practicable even in the POD environment, many matters and problems remain unexamined. For example, it is expected that only the functions of an apparatus such as a digital copying machine or digital multifunction peripheral, which is satisfactorily adapted to the office environment, may not always match the POD environment or the like. In the POD environment, an operator must make detailed settings and work in order to create a final product which meets a customer's request. This environment is aware of shortening of the work time and cost reduction. The apparatus is desirably applicable to such an environment.
More specifically, a print apparatus processes many target jobs in a printing environment such as the POD environment, and it is important how many jobs are processible by the print system within a short time. From another viewpoint, it is expected that a client requests various sheet processes (e.g., stapling, punching, saddle-stitching, case binding, and cutting) for a target job. From still another viewpoint, downsizing of the print apparatus and system and reduction of the space may also be important. It is, therefore, desirable to establish a convenient, flexible printing environment capable of coping with use cases and needs assumed in the POD environment. The following demands are desirably met to establish a convenient, flexible printing environment capable of coping with use cases and needs assumed in the POD environment.
For example, in a printing environment capable of various finishings, a customer may request printing of five copies, among which four copies require glue binding and one remaining copy requires punching. In other words, this user need is to execute different finishings with print data of the same contents. To meet this request, the operator must repeat, a plurality of number of times, a series of work operations such as setting of print process conditions, input of print data, and accumulation of print data in the memory for each finishing because finishing changes even with the same print data. This somewhat influences efficiency and productivity. This coping method may require improvements in a printing environment such as the POD environment where how to process a plurality of jobs is expected to be important. However, no improvement is proposed at present, so no concrete solution is proposed, either. In practice, no product is commercially available which can deal with use cases and needs on site in an environment such as the POD environment different from the office environment. There is room for further study in commercializing a print apparatus, print system, and the like adaptable not only to the office environment but also to the POD environment.